19

When Arthur saw Ethan’s name on the screen, he left out an enormous sigh of relief for hearing back from him along with a small smile that was unintentionally formed on his face. He immediately excused himself from the table and walks outside the restaurant.

He receives the call and speaks nothing and waits for Ethan’s voice.

“Arthur,” hearing his name in Ethan’s voice again made his heart skip a beat.

“What took you so long to call?”

“Were you waiting for my call?” Despite knowing that Arthur would be dying to get his call, Ethan takes pleasure in teasing him.

“I almost got on the flight,” Arthur felt light hearted and joked back.

Ethan chuckled and got weird stares from Vanessa and Liza who were still sitting in front of him listening to the one side conversation with Arthur.

“Then I’ll disconnect the call,”

“Ethan!”

“Haha. How you been?”

“I’m fine. And you?”

“I’m good too. What about Amity?”

“She’s good too and got extra lazy too. She didn’t want to go back home and even after reaching home, she was down. And put on tantrum to go to school today morning.”

Ethan didn’t put in any effort to control his laughter. “She’s a handful.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet,”

Vanessa and Liza shot him a glare and signaled to ask what was he laughing about. But Ethan just brushed them off and turned his chair opposite to them and continued to talk on the phone.

Vanessa and Liza looked at each other’s face and Vanessa whispered, “I will break his neck.”

“I won’t stop you,” Liza said and leaned back on her chair. She was happy and glad that Ethan had a chance to get back to his love. And also felt bad for Vanessa. That girl did love Ethan all the way, from when he was nothing to now. She really loved Ethan as a man, as a person. Not for his fame or money.

Vanessa stared at Ethan’s back for a while, trying to process the things that are happening in front of her. If everything went well, Ethan could back to Arthur and live a happily ever after life. She was happy for Ethan for getting in touch with his lover and trying to figure out things. But she wasn’t ready yet to let go of Ethan.

While Arthur spoke on the phone outside, the board members and others continued to have their lunch while discussing anything and everything. But not Liam Garcia. He had caught on Arthur’s smile when he excused himself from the lunch to receive the call. He knew Arthur and Emily shared a good relationship but they were not full of lovey dovey couple. So smiling when he receives a call from his wife isn’t something Arthur does. That only increased Liam’s curiosity. He wondered if Arthur was doing something behind his wife’s back. After all, if he could pick any dirt about Arthur, he could at least damage Arthur’s image even if he cannot get the project taken away from him.

Liam couldn’t control his curiosity and got up from his chair, all the old people looked at him, halting their conversation.

“Restroom. Please continue,” he said and left the table without waiting for a response from them.

Liam walked away from the table and looked around, trying to spot Arthur anywhere. He was quite sure that something was up with Arthur or else the Arthur who used to have a straight face 24/7, 365 days wouldn’t smile at a mere phone call.

When Liam couldn’t spot Arthur anywhere inside the restaurant, he headed outside the restaurant out of instinct. And there, at the lawn, he spotted Arthur, he was turned towards the roadside and was still on the phone and a seemingly visible smile on his face which Liam noticed on his side view.

He moved forward to listen to Arthur’s conversation.

“So are we going to continue this?” Liam heard Arthur’s voice.

“Okay, then, I will call you once I get some time to myself.” With that, Arthur disconnected the phone call and turned around only to spot Liam standing pretty close to him.

Arthur didn’t know if Liam had heard everything and had a sketch about things in his mind. But he didn’t want to jump into a conclusion right away. He just stayed silent.

Liam broke the silence, “If I didn’t know you better, then I would have thought you were having an affair behind Emily’s back.”

“You don’t have to worry about it. I know what I am doing,” Arthur tried to mask his shock about Liam’s intuition.

“Chill bro. I didn’t mean to hurt you by my words. I followed you just because I was curious to know whose phone call brought a smile on your face. I have never seen you that way in years.”

Arthur made a mental note to keep more distance from Liam and be careful about this adventurous affair of his with Ethan.

“It is still rude to listen to someone’s phone call.”

Liam raised his hands as if he was surrendering, “Sorry.”

Arthur simply ignored Liam and walked inside the restaurant. He knew it was a slip of time, Liam would have found out about his phone call. Nervousness hit him suddenly.

He was indeed going to have an affair with Ethan and had already cheated on Emily. He didn’t know about the future. A small part of his heart didn’t even want to think about it. He wanted to be in present. Live in the present.

Liam who had stayed back even after Arthur went inside, thought for while. He considered placing an eye on Arthur. But he wasn’t sure if he would be able to get anything out of it. A few years back he had tried to dig Arthur’s life back in college but he couldn’t find out anything. Not even a simple out of the box things. He thought maybe Arthur was a really nice man or he was a genius in hiding things. Nonetheless, Liam made a mental note to keep an eye on Arthur’s movements.